The New York Times & Times Square

The New York Times lent its name to Times Square, but it hasn't been the newspaper's home for quite some time.

The Times has a magnificent building on a dingy block, just across from the Port Authority Bus Terminal. It's only a few blocks from Times Square's neon lights, yet you'd rarely have an excuse to see the building unless you're about to catch a bus -- or accompanying a friend to the Port Authority to catch a bus, as I did a few weeks ago.

Seeing the building and its ladder-like facade reminded me of the men who tried to climb the building, with some success. Putzing around Wikipedia, I found out some more about the New York Times and all of its headquarters.

The current building became the New York Times headquarters in 2007, moving just two or three blocks south. It began life, however, in lower Manhattan, a few blocks from where I work. Its first locations in the mid-1800s were on Nassau Street, followed by a building on Park Row, once nicknamed "Newspaper Row."

In 1904 the New York Times moved way north, to Longacre Square, renamed Times Square. Fun fact: The Times started the annual tradition of dropping a lit ball on New Year's Eve. It still occurs on the top of the former Times building at One Times Square.